It’s starting to heat up in the world of Clever Endeavour as we prepare for the launch of Ultimate Chicken Horse on March 4th! That’s right, we actually have a release date! Please leave comments on Steam when we launch… we’ll love you forever :)

We’ve been super, super busy trying to get everything in order for launch and trying to make sure that our game is as awesome as it can possibly be for launch. So what does this mean?

Setting Up the Unlock System

One of the things we hadn’t worked on at all, but always planned for, was an unlock system so that when the game starts, not all of the characters and levels are available to you. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, we want to introduce new players to the levels slowly, so they don’t get overwhelmed and feel like the game is too hard. Some of the later levels are quite challenging… Second, we like the idea of being rewarded for doing well, and the excitement of unlocking a new outfit, level or character makes it worth it!

New Level: Metal Plant

Kyler’s been finishing up the art on our newest level, Metal Plant. The level is going to be quite difficult, with components constantly in motion. You’ll also notice there’s glue on each of the moving pieces (see gif below) and that means you can attach all sorts of stuff to it to make it more dangerous. Or more helpful, but who wants that??

UI Overhaul

One of the most important steps in polishing our game (or most games, for that matter) is going over the UI (user interface) and making sure everything is intuitive. Players sometimes had issues understanding certain game details at shows, and we needed to give press extra instructions when sending them a build of the game. We also had some camera issues where the camera would block off certain things or the UI would be layered in strange ways, so we fixed that up. A simple example is that in Creative mode, when one player is selecting, the other player (the one that’s placing) isn’t covered by the booklet that opens up:

Online Multiplayer?

Working on it! We wanted to finish up our build for the press (see below) so that we had something polished to put out for reviews. We’re still working on the online multiplayer though and it’s going fairly well, we’re going to do our best to make it happen!

Making a Trailer

We’ve been working on a new launch trailer which we hope will take over the internet! Alright maybe not quite, but we’d like to at least make a little dent. Our first trailer was nice, but we wanted to show off all of the new features while still making a video that explains the game well. The trailer isn’t done yet but it should be ready by next week.

Emailing Press

It’s time! Or, it was time I guess. Today we emailed the press to tell them of our launch date, give them review copies of the game, and give them all the information they need to write reviews or articles about Ultimate Chicken Horse. The only thing that’s missing from this build is the online multiplayer, and surely there are some minor bugs we’ll discover along the way. We met a lot of great press throughout our adventures: GDC, Kickstarter, PAX Prime, Montreal ComicCon, PAX South… and I think they’re looking forward to this.

Plans for Console?

Yes, we plan to come to console if everything goes according to plan, but we haven’t yet decided in what order or what kind of timeline we’re looking at. Hang tight!

Again, we want to thank you for your continued support throughout our development, we can see the finish line! :